It’s disappointing to see the number of National Party supporters who so casually dismiss the growing power of the State to spy on us; collect data on our communications; and – as Jason Ede, Judith Collins, and Paula Bennett showed – to mis-use our personal information for political ends.

For many John Key supporters, the phrase “nothing to hide” rolls easily of their keyboards as they post their naive views on various on-line fora.

The irony is that many of them then sign off with an anonymous pseudonym.

Our esteemed Prime Minister has employed the threat of “terrorists” in the past to frighten New Zealanders into accepting increased GCSB surveillance on our society.

The latest fear-threat is “cyber attacks” from off-shore, saying,

“Last weekend, Spark was brought to its knees because some people clicked on malware which brought the network down. Cyber risk is exponentially rising. This is about protecting secrets rather than getting secrets.”

Key has doggedly likened the GCSB to “a Norton anti-virus at a high level”, saying it works against malware.

I have anti-spyware and anti-malware on my computer, and (as far as I know), it’s function does not include spying on my activities, communications, movements, or contacts with other people.

Since when does malware protection demand surveillance over the entire population?

“There is no mass surveillance of New Zealanders by the GCSB and there never has been. Mr Dotcom’s little henchman will be proven to be incorrect because he is incorrect.”

Are we to take Mr Key at his solemn word?

Is this the same solemn word where he recently dismissed another investigative journalist’s claims;

“Mr Hager’s making claims he can’t back up and they’re not factually correct.”

And,

“At the end of the day we’re five weeks out from an election, people can see that Nicky Hager’s made a whole lot of things up in his book, (they) can see he can’t back a lot of them up. People can see this is a smear campaign by Nicky Hager.”

Seventeen days after the launch of “Dirty Politics” , Judith Collins was forced to resign from her ministerial portfolios.

Whenever an investigative journalist uncovers something unpleasant about Mr Key’s government it always seems to be the Prime Minister who comes off second best.

Tribal politics appears to be a prime motivating reason for National supporters to be casually dismissive of concerns that the GCSB has been conducting mass surveillance and our esteemed Prime Minister has been less than upfront with the New Zealand public.

“Mr Hager’s making claims he can’t back up and they’re not factually correct… At the end of the day we’re five weeks out from an election, people can see that Nicky Hager’s made a whole lot of things up in his book, (they) can see he can’t back a lot of them up. People can see this is a smear campaign by Nicky Hager.”

And yet, Hager’s expose resulted in the sacking/resignation of one minister and a current Inquiry into how the SIS released sensitive information to rightwing blogger and National Party activist, Cameron Slater.

In case National supporters are still dismissive of Glenn Greenwald’s revelations, they might care to ponder the fact that governments change. The same surveillance used by a National-led government can be conducted equally by a left-wing government against it’s right-wing opponants.

I suspect that may motivate National supporters to suddenly sit up and take a closer interest in these matters.

-Frank Macskasy

[address & phone number supplied]

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That should give Dear Leader’s media spin doctors a few issues to deal with.

Next time there’s a debate on state surveillance on an internet blog or other forum, check out who is supporting more power for governments to spy on us. Have a look at those who parrot the cliche, “nothing to hide, nothing to fear”.